Rationale:
There are two primary reasons to eliminate the Senate from our nation’s legislature. They both stem from atrophy of the original reasons our founders included a Senate in the Constitution. By their reasoning the Senate would provide two functions:
1) It would be a body of more distinguished statesmen, elected by state legislators rather than the general public.
2) It would provide equal representation for all states, preventing the domination of more populated states over less populated states.
The first purpose was indicative of our founders doubts about direct democracy. After these fears were relatively unrealized, the election of Senators reverted to direct popular vote in 1913. This has resulted in two separate legislative bodies, both directly elected by the people, with virtually the same legislative responsibility.
In practice, this commonly results in a stalemated or stilted legislative progress. The House and the Senate each consider and vote on different bills covering the same topic. Resolving the differences falls into the hands of the leaders of each body, giving this small number of representatives an inordinate amount of power to shape the resulting legislation. The full bodies of the House and Senate rarely, if ever, have an opportunity to collaborate, except through select joint committees of powerbrokers, whose constituents are from a small number of states and congressional districts. The full House and full Senate are then asked only to affirm or reject the compromise legislation hashed out by these Congressional leaders.
The second original purpose of the Senate was to provide equal representation for each state in the legislative process. In practice, however, very little legislation is based on the interests of one state versus another. And the protection of states from discrimination by the actions of the federal government is otherwise enshrined in the Constitution, giving states the right to use to judicial system, rather than the legislative system, to redress any unfair treatment.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s composition of two representatives from each state, regardless of population, creates a dramatically unequal representation of citizens in the legislative branch. This inequity flies in the face of our common value for democratic equality.
“Vermont’s 625,000 residents have two United States senators, and so do New York’s 19 million. That means that a Vermonter has 30 times the voting power in the Senate of a New Yorker just over the state line – the biggest inequality between two adjacent states. The nation’s largest gap, between Wyoming and California, is more than double that.”
–Hamilton Nolan
The elimination of the Senate would allow for the House of Representatives, as a single legislative body, equally representing all Americans, to deliberate and pass laws more efficiently, more inclusively, with less control of the process by a handful of congressional leaders, with fewer legislative stalements, and with more equal representation of all citizens.
https://www.gq.com/story/the-case-for-abolishing-the-senate
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/4/18125539/john-dingell-abolish-senate
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